Modern Cricketing Books

Cricket Mania

Since its origins in the 16th century, cricket has been a sporting favourite throughout the former British empire. From its humble beginnings to the international fervor of the Ashes and World Cup, cricket has attracted attention in the literary world. Cricket fans check out this featured selection of cricket books. With everything from superstar biographies to beginner guides and and historic records, you can get your cricketing fix at Abebooks.

Nasser Hussain pulls no punches in this bestselling autobiography. It is the story of the most interesting, thoughtful and passionate cricketer of recent times, in his own words. For the first and last time.

Bradman is a masterly portrait of cricket's supreme batsman and Australia's greatest hero. Uniquely among biographers of Don Bradman, Charles Williams sets his subject's cricketing achievements within the context of a crucial period in the history of modern Australia, a time when, as the country felt her way towards something that the world would recognise as "nationhood", Bradman became a focus for national aspirations, a figure of unique status.

Between 1980 and 1993, Simon Hughes was a regular on the county circuit, playing alongside Brearley, Gatting, Edmonds and Botham. This is an anecdotal look at the ups and downs, the lifestyle, the practical jokes and shear hard yakka of county cricket.

Mike Atherton has played professional cricket for Lancashire and England for 15 years. He represented England in 115 Test matches and captained his country on 54 occasions. His autobiography contains many observations about world cricket, plus humorous asides and insights into the game of cricket.

The Willow Wand: Some Cricket Myths ExploredDerek BirleyAnyone widely read in cricket's rich literature knows that only one book merits discussion in the same breath as Beyond a Boundary. Nothing less than an anatomy of the game, The Willow Wand measures cricket's mythology against the reality. It reassesses legendary cricketers like W. G. Grace and C. B. Fry, revered commentators like Neville Cardus, and modern phenomena like limited-overs games and the Packer era, and shows how cricket's hallowed etiquette could mask unpleasant exclusions on grounds of race and class. Witty, controversial and hugely readable, The Willow Wand is a challenging riposte to any notion of cricket as being a bland, bucolic idyll.

Rain Men is a cricketing epiphany, a landmark in the literature of the game. Shining the light meter of reason into cricket's incomparable madness, Marcus Berkmann illuminates all the obsessions and disappointments that the dedicated fan and pathologically hopeful clubman suffers year after year - the ritual humiliation of England's middle order, the partially-sighted umpires, the battling average that reads more like a shoe size. As satisfying as a perfectly timed cover drive, and rather easier to come by, Rain Men offers essential justification for anyone who has ever run a team-mate out on purpose or secretly blubbed at a video of Botham's Ashes.

The man himself describes what it is like to be a sporting demigod.
It's an intriguing cocktail of sex and drugs allegations, personal
upheavals, confrontations with his peers, and remarkable achievements
both on and off the field. The Botham summer of 1981 against
the Australians including the miracle comeback at Headingley.

On the pitch Darren Gough's fast bowling has proved time and again that he is the linchpin of the English team, while off the field his honesty and directness have made him the sport's most talked about figure.